NOW EU WANTS 20% VAT ON NEW HOUSES

By Sarah O'Grady 

Brussels has quietly issued a con­sultation document that proposes scrapping the current zero VAT rating.

The move to charge the full 20 per cent is part of a plan to standardise tax rates across Europe. It would drive up the average price of a new home by £48,000 from £238,000 to £286,000 and have a catastrophic impact on the UK.

The huge increase would price people out of the market, make it even more difficult to get a mortgage and bring the building industry to its knees.

Only about 130,000 homes were built across Britain last year – a historic low. Any reduction in numbers would exacerbate the country’s housing crisis.

Steven Lees, director of SmartNew­Homes, said: “A new 20 per cent tax would have serious consequences for the market and render useless every initiative the Government has introduced to help increase the supply of homes.

Most house builders simply could not absorb this cost and build profitably

Steven Lees, director of SmartNew­Homes

“Most house builders simply could not absorb this cost and build profitably. Adding the shortfall on to the asking price would make new homes uncompetitive and push prices beyond the reach of most buyers.”

Richard Jones, of the Residential Landlords Association, which sounded the alert after studying the EU report, said: “Both buyers and landlords would be badly hit if this were to happen.

“This consultation has the potential to cause catastrophic damage to the housing market in the UK and we hope any such moves will be firmly resisted by the UK Government.”

John Stewart, of the Home Builders Federation, said: “In the midst of a housing crisis, with a desperately fragile UK housing market and historically low house-building rates, any threat to the zero rating of VAT on new-build homes would be catastrophic. It is vital that the Government joins with industry to combat any VAT imposition.”

Experts say the EU is proposing to remove the zero VAT rating from all building materials apart from the ones which offer the best energy efficiency and lowest carbon emissions. But Richard Tamayo, of the National Housebuilding Council, said: “This would have exactly the opposite effect to that desired by the EU of improving the overall energy efficiency of the housing stock.”

Andrew Frankish, of leading broker Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “Developers could not afford to absorb an extra cost of this size yet could not pass a 20 per cent price rise on to buyers because they wouldn’t be able to afford it, besides which mortgage lenders would flatly refuse to lend.”

A spokesman for the European Commission said last night: “This is a consultation pre-empting nothing and looking at VAT in general. There is no proposal on the table.

“Any change would need the UK Government’s approval to become law.”

And there was doubt yesterday that the Government would ever agree to change the tax-exempt status of new homes. A spokesman for the Treasury said: “The UK Government will not change the VAT zero-rating of new-build homes.”

Replies to the EU consultation document must be received by January 4 next year.

Cameron EU pledge a load of Brussels spouts

Monday, 22nd October 2012

CABINET-rank ministers, in an unprecedented revolt against the official party line, are daring to suggest Britain might walk out of Europe, writes UKIP Leader Nigel Farage in The Sun newspaper today.
Meanwhile Tory MPs with marginal seats are squealing in alarm at polls showing UKIP’s campaign for an IN-or-OUT referendum has won huge public support.

Could the two developments by any chance be related?

Conservatives have suddenly woken up to the increasingly probability that my party will win the 2014 European elections.

More to the point, they are terrified Mr Cameron will be robbed again of outright victory in 2015 as Tory voters choose us or stay home.

In any case, can we believe a word “Cast Iron Dave” says about a referendum after his previous broken promise?

The Prime Minister and his Foreign Secretary, William Hague, are rattling sabres at Brussels and demanding the return of sovereign power over welfare, immigration and justice.

But what, as Michael Gove asks, do we do if they say NO?

The Eurosceptic Education Secretary says we can walk out.

But that is not what Mr Cameron thinks or says.

He is on the record insisting categorically that he will never lead a campaign for Britain to leave Europe.

So say Labour’s Ed Miliband and the Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg.

Which means all this referendum talk is hot air.

If they do try and bring back hundreds of important powers ceded to Brussels over the years, Brussels will certainly say NO.

With the Euro in flames, why would they turn a drama into an existential crisis by allowing Britain to unravel their carefully tied Gordian knot?

Our relationship with the EU underpins almost everything that happens in Britain today, from how our doctors are trained and how they work, to whether the WI and Red Cross volunteers can sell jam at their fundraising fetes.

It tells us what to grow, how to fish, it tells us who we can trade with and how we should employ people.

It decides on our holidays, on our lightbulbs, it regulates how to use ladders and whether we can kick out terrorists through the European Court of Human Rights, now an integral part of the European Union.

They know a victorious Cameron negotiation would lead inevitably to other member states demanding similar or different concessions.

This is precisely contrary to everything those gravy-train Eurocrats have been beavering away for over the last four decades.

They have not gathered enormous and continually expanding power to the centre in order to give it back, ever.

Perhaps Mr Cameron secretly hopes to encourage a slap in the face from EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso as a pretext for a proper IN-OUT referendum.

Perhaps he is more of a Eurosceptic than anyone had previously believed.

If so, his bluff will certainly be called.

Mr Barroso has learned nothing and forgotten nothing since his days as a firebrand Maoist agitator.

Just last month he confirmed what was long suspected but always denied — that the EU can only survive as a full-blown federal superstate.

Anyone who gets in the way of this Grand Project will be cast aside or crushed.

Under a new EU Treaty, Brussels will demand absolute loyalty from member states — one country, one army, one treasury, one flag, one anthem, one loyalty and one future.

Some sceptics, such as Open Europe, oppose a referendum because they are nervous voters might lock us in forever because they are too fearful of being outside.

Quite the reverse.

With the Euro disintegrating, unemployment soaring, pensions and prosperity in freefall, there is more likely to be a stampede for the exit, with others in hot pursuit.

Once out we would be free to float and flourish.

With a population soon set to exceed Germany’s, Britain would be too big a market to ignore, still less punish.

Europe is an outdated economic and political union which, as it stands, cannot compete in a fast-changing world economy.

Britain would not simply survive outside, we would flourish.

And the sooner we have that chance, the better.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4602002/David-Camerons-Euro-pledge-is-a-load-of-Brussels-spouts.html#ixzz2A1NbcYmf

A Referendum Stitch-up? By Nigel Farage, UKIP Leader

The British establishment is quite prepared to doctor the record when it suits them - last week's Hillsborough revelations graphically showed that. It can be decades before the truth is dragged out of our political class.

There is no subject on which this is truer than Britain's membership of the European Union.
Whether it's Whitehall suppressing key papers or British governments of all stripes issuing misleading statements and using weasel words, we now know that the whole truth and key information has long been suppressed.
This matters particularly now, because EU Commission president Barroso has announced that he wants to see a new EU Treaty within two years. This Treaty would be to create a European Federation and would wrest control from the UK of a whole series of powers - powers that Brussels would never relinquish.
The polling evidence suggests that over half of us want to leave the EU. Even more want a referendum to give us the chance to have our say. The Daily Express has taken a courageous stand on this great issue, putting enormous pressure on the Government.
And in the end David Cameron is going to have to offer this country a referendum. But I want to make sure that we are asked the right question and I want you to help me. History warns us that this is far from certain to be the case.
For my sins I know how the political class operate – and co-operate – in both Brussels and London. They may offer us a referendum but on a question that suits them and is designed to produce the “right” result. I believe they are going to try to repeat an old trick.
To try to help remove the scales from our eyes I am publishing a pamphlet, ‘A Referendum Stitch-Up?’ into what happened back in the 1970s.
In 1975, my parents’ generation was led to believe that they were voting to stay part of a “Common Market” or free trade area.
They were not. Harold Wilson's government publicly claimed, "no important new policy can be decided in Brussels". But, behind the scenes the Foreign Office had already told it that "Community law" would "prevail over conflicting national legislation".
Both statements could not be true. They were contradictory. We have learnt to our considerable cost, that it was the "censored" one - the one withheld from us - that was accurate. The Conservatives and Liberals of the time co-operated in the deceit.
What we were in fact voting for was to remain in what economists call a “customs union”. In the EU, being part of a customs union means everything has to be “harmonised”, i.e. made uniform. That is what the European Union has been busily doing for decades.
It gives rise to a whole range of laws from environmental regulation via common employment law to unrestricted immigration, with its resultant welfare costs.
In the last few days plans have been presented to create a federal state of Europe, with a Common Treasury and a single budget. Alongside this legislative overlordship come the practical costs. In trade we run a deficit of £50 billion with the EU when we run a surplus with the rest of the world.

Europe grows relatively poorer as each new member joins (just wait for Turkey: the coalition and Labour all want to add another 70million people), and becomes more of an economic backwater in terms of world trade as growth switches to such countries as Brazil, China and India.

Worse still, for the privilege of having to implement all these regulations, Britain has to pay the European Union a gross contribution of more than £50million per day. Yet the Prime Minister says we must stay in at any cost.
It is clear that the political class is trying to mislead us again.  They suggest that a straight “in or out” referendum question should be replaced by a complex question offering a third way: continuing as part of the Single Market without full political union. In short, we are being presented with a recycled version of what we thought we were getting in 1975.
But just like then, there is no third way. My research explains why any apparent renegotiation of membership terms can only be a mirage. With the design of the EU as it is meaningful renegotiation is neither possible nor credible.
In fairness to the EU elite, they have never tried to hide this. A binding commitment to “ever closer union” was there at the beginning and has been constantly repeated ever since.
But the same cannot be said of the British establishment: ever since the membership and referendum debate of the early 1970s it has tried to conceal this fundamental commitment. And the leopard is not about to change its spots.
We are committed by Treaty to make progress towards an ever-closer union. Until the Treaties are repealed by British law, this remains a statement of fact.
What I am afraid of - as we increasingly win the argument about how the UK’s membership is damaging rather than beneficial - is that the British establishment will appear to renegotiate, come back claiming to have got “not all we want but enough”, fix the wording for a referendum into a leading question giving them endless “wriggle-room” and win by fraud - all over again.
In contrast with nearly 50 years of lies and half-truths from successive governments, I believe you, the public, are entitled to hear the truth about what the EU is and where it hopes to go.
There must be no more EU stitch-ups. It is time for our political class to be honest with the people of Britain and for the people of Britain to have their say.

TOP TORY QUITS TO JOIN UKIP

THE crusade to get out of the EU got a huge boost last night when a former Tory grandee announced that he is joining anti-Brussels party Ukip.

Lord Stevens of Ludgate told the Daily Express that he had given up hope David Cameron would take the radical action required to unshackle Britain from the yoke of Brussels.

The peer – chairman of Express Newspapers until 1999 – is the latest political heavyweight to back Ukip because of the Prime Minister’s failure to hold a referendum about whether Britain should quit.

He follows a string of high profile Tory defections and his appeal to others to act on grounds of sovereignty puts the Tory leadership under massive pressure for a tougher anti-Brussels line before next month’s party conference.

Lord Stevens said: “I would urge everyone to consider whether they want to be run from the unelected Brussels Commission or Whitehall. I believe in the United Kingdom being the United Kingdom. We fought two World Wars to preserve that.”

He’s a giant of Fleet Street, an immensely respected member of the House of Lords and a huge asset to Ukip and to the cause of Britain’s freedom

Nigel Farage

A jubilant Ukip high command will unveil their latest recruit at the party conference in Birmingham this week. 

Leader Nigel Farage said: “He’s a giant of Fleet Street, an immensely respected member of the House of Lords and a huge asset to Ukip and to the cause of Britain’s freedom.”

MEP Roger Helmer and former Conservative chief whip in the Lords, Alexander Hesketh have already been welcomed into Ukip’s ranks.

Although no longer an official member since a dispute with the leadership over Europe in 2004, Lord Stevens is a life-long Conservative supporter who has sat in the House of Lords as a “Conservative Independent”. Now he has decided his only course is to become a fully-fledged member of Ukip.

Lord Stevens said he believes that only a referendum asking people if they want to be in or out of Europe, held as soon as possible and certainly before the next election in 2015, will do.

He admitted that turning his back on the Conservatives was a hard decision. “All my life I have been a Conservative supporter,” he said.

“It’s a wrench for me, to say I’m pro-Ukip and effectively anti-Conservative. That’s why it’s taken me eight years. But I have made up my mind. I’m taking the plunge.

“I had hopes of this Government but I finally got exasperated. My patience is exhausted because I don’t think this Government is going to do anything. I delayed this decision because I was hopeful the Government would be more positive on sorting out the problems of Europe. They are just prevaricating. I don’t regard it as disloyalty to the Conservative Party. It’s loyalty because I’m pointing them in the right direction.”

Lord Stevens said a vote to endorse a renegotiated relationship with Europe, which Mr Cameron is believed to be considering, was insufficient, because any new position would end up being “nibbled way at again” by eurocrats.

“They just don’t let go, and the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers don’t have time to watch over Brussels all the time,” he said. “The referendum has to be in-out, yes or no: do you want to be part of the EU and I would want it as soon as possible.”

More people are speaking out against Brussels, said Lord Stevens – and he praised the Daily Express crusade for leading calls to leave the EU.

“I’m very proud of the Daily Express, that it’s leading the charge. It’s a brave and a great decision,” he said.

“The Daily Express has always been a campaigning newspaper and it has always believed in Britain and the working man. The working man is basically in favour of free trade and not being run by Europe.”

He warned failure to tackle the Brussels issue, as well as shortcomings on other policy areas such as simplifying tax would cost the Tories votes.

Lord Stevens, 76, said that since he was a young man he had supported a free trade area and no more.

“The people of this country voted in 1975 for a free trade association, not for anything more than that,” he said.

But he added warnings that the aim of the new bloc was complete political and economic union had been proved correct. “Every step along the way has been another step in that direction and I have been opposed to it all my life.

“We can operate perfectly effectively outside the EU. We want the freedom to have a free trade agreement. Our trade outside the EU is increasing more rapidly than within the EU and that’s been the case for some time.

“We have an EU with an ageing and declining population, now in serious economic trouble which we are helping to bail out.”

Lord Stevens said the key problems with the EU included its ever-increasing cost to Britain, its sky-high spending and the massive red tape it imposes.

“The bureaucrats in Brussels have nothing better to do than to dream up new regulations,” he said.

“To get the UK economy moving we have to cut regulation and we can’t do it under the present regime. We have to reduce immigration, which costs us a fortune, and we can’t do that as long as we are part of the EU.”

Mr Cameron faces increasing pressure from within his own party as well as outside to give Britain a say on our relationship with the EU.

Last week Tory MP John Baron said he was launching a new cross-party group to urge Mr Cameron to pass a law committing the next government to a referendum.

On Monday we reported how former PM Sir John Major and ex-Defence Secretary Liam Fox were stepping up calls for our relationship with Brussels to be redrawn and the results endorsed in a referendum.

However, many Tories want to go further and announce a straight vote on whether to remain an EU member, an idea Mr Cameron is resisting.

Nigel Farage: A new EU powergrab has been launched

But you won’t hear anything about it from the BBC or Westminster politicians
We are still not having a proper debate in the UK about our relationship with the EU. It suits our political class to pretend that all things EU are ‘over there’ and need not worry us.
Look at what happened last week. We saw an astonishing powergrab launched in Brussels. Yet silence in Westminster.
We heard a lot about the Hillsborough Report. It still proves to be a powerful and emotive subject and the arguments about the behaviour of the police are very important. But it meant the EU plans were completely overlooked.
On the morning of Prime Minister’s Questions a plan for a complete EU takeover of regulations of our banking industry was trailed in the FT and Telegraph. In Westminster there was silence. Then hours before the PM stood up European Commission President Barroso had announced that he wanted a new EU Treaty ready in time for the 2014 European election. Again one could see the tumbleweed rolling over the Treasury benches. There was not a single mention of the EU question at PMQs, instead there was much concern over speed bumps.
Just as Ken Clarke had once envisaged, Westminster was a debating chamber of a local rate-capped authority. It was as if events of earlier in the day in Strasbourg had simply not happened.

“From my close up ringside seat I watched a speech that repulsed me”

Jose Manuel Barroso has never been the most inspiring Commission President and the old hands in Brussels still miss the days of Jaques Delors. For the third year in a row he delivered his ‘State of the Union’ speech. It is strange, given how much they hate the USA that such mimicry should exist. In my thirteen years sitting in the European Parliament never have I heard the bosses be so open and clear about their intentions: Whilst Barroso’s style may have excited little, his words were very strong. From my close up ringside seat I watched a speech that repulsed me. We must have a Federal Europe, democracy was to be transferred from the nations to the EU level and a stronger European Army was needed. The objective was clear, to be a global power.
I sat thinking, if only every UK voter could see and hear this, we would all say ‘no way, Jose’.
The only real point of contention was whether the structure should be a Federal Europe of Nation States or a Federal Union with the official abolition of states, I found it difficult to stay in the chamber.
Of these great events, including the German Constitutional Court rejecting an application to strike down the Euro rescue fund, the great British public will learn little. The BBC, our state broadcaster, covered events in the chamber in a cursory way, just another story. Our national press, including the eurosceptic ones, gave brief coverage in the foreign pages. I did not see a single British journalist in Strasbourg myself, but am told the BBC have a new chap but he hasn’t bothered to introduce himself. I would have thought that the UKIP leader, whose Party came second in the 2009 European Elections, being personally abused by Barroso might count. Apparently not. It is only newsworthy if I call someone a damp rag, that being a national disgrace. According to Barroso I am an extreme populist and irrelevant to the EU debate. I didn’t know he cared.
I did at least expect a question to David Cameron about one of Barroso’s proposals, the creation of an EU Banking Union. Whilst we have considerable problems with our banks and radical reform is badly needed, the last thing we should want to do is to hand over control of this vital sector. Elsewhere the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, had spoken out strongly against all these ideas. But no, nothing. No challenge to Cameron to demand a veto, clearly speed bumps are what concerns our modern day career MPs.
There is one major consolation though. Through the blogosphere and YouTube the voters will realise that a new European Treaty is on its way and that a referendum will be impossible to ignore. It will all depend now on the question, but I am sure that the majority of us want no more fudges, just a simple choice.

Daily Express - KEN CLARKE: 'BRITAIN DOES NOT WANT AN EU REFERENDUM'

KEN CLARKE provoked fury today after he claimed that Britain did not need a referendum on the EU.

The Justice Secretary claimed that there was little public demand for an in-out vote and insisted that voters were not as deeply eurosceptic as critics of Brussels suggest.

The Tory cabinet minister claimed that the MPs who have been calling for a referendum were 'a few extreme nationalist politicians.'

The comment provoked outrage among Tory backbenchers who have been increasing pressure on the Prime Minister to promise a referendum in a bid to escape the grips of Brussels.

Dozens have signed up to the People's Pledge campaign, which is staging votes around the country to gauge support - with the first showing 89.9 per cent in favour. But Mr Clarke, among the most pro-European Tories, said it was a "ridiculous" idea that would do nothing the end the complaints of "frenzied" eurosceptics.

Asked if he accepted that voters were deeply eurosceptic, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The nation is a bit eurosceptic.

"The nation is extremely worried about present events, as well we might be. We all feel insecure, we all feel worried, we are hoping that a strong government will take us through and some difficult measures are required.

"The idea that they are all demanding a referendum on the European Union would be regarded as ridiculous, it would be out of sight as a public priority.

"It is the demand of a few right-wing journalists and a few extreme nationalist politicians."

Mr Clarke also added that if there was an election now the Tories would not win the vote.

Mr Clarke expressed surprise that the coalition was not even more unpopular than it was.

"I have seen, mid-term, much greater turmoil than this. I've been in governments having much more trouble than this.

"Actually I am amazed that the Government is retaining the support it is," he said.

"There is not a government in Western Europe could win an election at the moment because strong governments have to do unpopular things.

"It's a credit to the public actually - they realise we have to do unpopular things."

A referendum would "throw absolute confusion" over the UK's involvement in the EU, undermining efforts to retain the faith of the markets in the economy, he suggested.

"I can't think of anything sillier to do."

After the last referendum - in 1975 - opponents of the EU immediately ignored the "yes" result, he said.

"It would settle nothing. Particularly it would settle nothing with the more frenzied eurosceptics who keep believing that European bogies are under the bed."

Poor old deluded Ken, Pro EU propaganda that even the most staunch EU supporter wouldn't believe.

Daily Express - 'QUIT BRUSSELS' SAY TORIES'

MORE than two thirds of grassroots Tories want Britain to quit the European Union, an opinion poll revealed last night.

The survey found that 70 per cent of Conservative Party members are in favour of cutting all ties with Brussels.

In a stark message to the Prime Minister on the strength of Euroscepticism in his party, four out of five Tories want an EU referendum pledge in the next election manifesto. Nearly half want this to be an all in-or-out option.

The website ConservativeHome carried out the poll for Channel 4 News.

Come on lets have another one of honest Dave's 'cast iron' guarantees to give us a referendum, as long as the 'time is right' & the Bilderberg group say it's OK.

 do the decent thing Tories, join UKIP, there are more Conservative values there now anyway!

Daily Express - KEN CLARKE: EU REFERENDUM IS SILLY

KENNETH Clarke faced a furious backlash last night after dismissing calls for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union as “irrelevant and silly”.

In a provocative swipe at the Tory Right, the Justice Secretary and veteran europhile rubbished supporters of a nationwide poll on Britain’s links with Brussels as “a few extreme nationalists”.

His astonishing outburst in a live radio rant was seen as an insult to more than 370,000 Daily Express readers who have backed this newspaper’s crusade for the UK to quit the EU.

Mr Clarke also admitted the Tories would lose a snap general election if one were held today and confessed to being surprised that the Coalition was not more unpopular than recent opinion polls suggest.

He spoke out amid growing expectations from Tory MPs that David Cameron will come out in favour of an EU referendum by the next election.

Interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Clarke dismissed claims that backing an EU referendum could help revive Tory fortunes. “It’s a complete non sequitur,” he said. “A referendum on our membership of the EU is an irrelevance.”

He added: “It is the demand of a few Right-wing journalists and a few extreme nationalist politicians. I cannot think of anything sillier to do than to hold a referendum.

“It would settle nothing with the more frenzied Eurosceptics, who keep believing that European bogies are under the bed.

“I think the nation is a bit Eurosceptic. The nation is extremely worried about present events, as well we might be. We all feel insecure, we’re hoping strong government will take us through, and some difficult measures are required.”

Last night Mr Clarke repeated his claims, telling Channel 4 News: “To actually start going on about a referendum now is a useless irrelevance.

“I just think if people heard the British were now going to indulge themselves in a three-week campaign about whether or not they were going to stay members of the EU, people would start thinking ‘the British are just like the Greeks – what are they going to do next?’”

Downing Street officials rejected his stance last night and refused to rule out an EU referendum.

A source close to David Cameron said: “Ken’s views on Europe are well known and he always expresses them in a colourful way.

“The manifesto for 2015 has not been written. We’re focused on dealing with the deficit and getting growth into the economy.” Tory backbencher Peter Bone savaged Mr Clarke’s comments as an “insult” to Daily Express readers.

“If Ken Clarke is so sure that Daily Express readers are in the minority on this question, why doesn’t he agree to a referendum so we can see whether it is his view or that of Daily Express readers which is truly popular,” said Mr Bone.

A Commons Transport Select Committee yesterday warned new EU rules on pilots’ flying hours risk “jeopardising safety”. They accused it of planning to lower Britain’s standards by pursuing a “lowest common denominator” approach to harmonise rules across the EU.

Thank you Mr Clarke you actions I'm sure will aid the popularity & recruitment of UKIP who are currently swelling with disgruntled Tory members & voters.

Maintaining a pro EU stance is shear insanity, with unelected bureaucrats running our country from abroad, mismanagement of countless taxes, British sovereignty given away on a silver platter & clear links to Agenda 21, JUST WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON MR CLARKE!

One things for certain, it isn't the British peoples! 

Daily Express - NO TAX FOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE

FURY erupted last night after it emerged that international finance chief Christine Lagarde pays no tax on her £350,000 a year salary and perks package.

The head of the International Monetary Fund is paid on a tax-free basis because of the global nature of her role, officials confirmed.

The former French finance minister, 56, caused anger in Greece last month for berating many Greeks for dodging tax.

Her salary is funded by taxpayers from IMF member states, including Britain.

John O’Connell, research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s utterly disgraceful that these officials can jet around the world telling others to pay their share, while they live tax free.

“What’s even worse is that it’s taxpayers who pick up the bill. Urgent reform is needed to ensure they practise what they preach.”

Mrs Lagarde shares her tax-free status with United Nations diplomats as part of the 1961 Vienna Convention.

Oh the benefits of the unelected elite, does that mean that airline pilots don't pay tax because of the 'Global Nature' of their roll? No? OK, what about Military personnel? I wonder if her staff share the same benefit?

Looks like wine, tastes like wine, EU says its a 'Fruit-Derived Alcoholic Beverage from produce sourced Outside the EU'

One of the UK's leading wine producers has fallen foul of bonkers EU rules after it was told its Malbec must not be called wine but 'a fruit-derived alcoholic beverage' because it was made using imported grapes from Argentina.

Bottles of the Chapel Down Malbec, which retail for around £15 each must now be withdrawn from sale under EU rules which declare that the wine may not declare itself a wine or a Malbec if produced in a region different from that in which the grapes were grown – and it's even forbidden to be sold.

The Malbec was produced in collaboration with an Argentinian vineyard and is not bottled as Malbec, but instead is called 'An English Salute'.

The winemakers from Tenterden in Kent are now stuck with 1,300 bottles of wine, which was launched in April on World Malbec Day and are resorting to giving it away as taster sample alongside purchases of their award-winning sparkling wines.

In protest at the barmy ruling, the EFD Group in the European Parliament, of which UKIP is the majority party, is holding a Non-Wine Tasting Event in Brussels on Europe Day, May 9, with the serious aim of drawing attention to damaging, nonsensical EU legislation.

There are bound to be plenty of takers, as according to wine experts, the grapes were fermented slightly cooler than is traditional in Argentina before the wine was matured in new American oak for nine month resulting in a “big red” wine (abv 14%) with a blackcurrant, blueberry and raspberry nose and a long finish of berry fruit and garrigue herbs.


To see what UKIP Leader Nigel Farage had to say abou the farce, click here.

EUROZONE CRISIS TO BE FIXED... WITH A KNEES-UP

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles

Wednesday May 9,2012

By Macer Hall

 Have your say(6)

EUROCRATS are planning to party through the eurozone crisis by holding a bizarre birthday festival this week, it emerged yesterday.

EU citizens are being invited to Brussels to see displays of Tai Chi, cookery, flag throwing and a troop of frolicking clowns.

There is even a display of laughter yoga – an exercise technique from India where participants learn to “laugh for no reason”.

And the highlight of the taxpayer-funded event will be a live performance by a 69-year-old DJ called Mamy Rock.

The attractions are being staged in the European quarter of the Belgian capital on Saturday in a Festival of Europe Open Day at the EU’s institutions.

It is planned around today’s Europe Day anniversary of the foundation of the first step towards European union. But last night, critics were appalled that Brussels chiefs were staging a celebration at a time of worsening political and economic crisis across the EU.

The Eurocrats are laughing at us – at our expense

Euro MP Paul Nuttall, deputy leader of Ukip

Euro MP Paul Nuttall, deputy leader of Ukip, said: “I am sure the millions left destitute and unemployed by the EU’s ruinous policies will join me in denouncing these events. The Eurocrats are laughing at us – at our expense.” 

An EU spokeswoman said: “The open day is held every year to invite citizens to find out more about what the EU does.”

But EU officials yesterday declined to disclose how much the event was costing.

Meanwhile, a number of public buildings in the UK will be forced to fly the blue-and-gold EU flag for a week from today.

Whitehall’s office of the Department for Communities and Local Government is among those where staff are forced to comply with the ruling or face a £10,000 fine. Officials are ordered to ensure the flag is flown in a “prominent position at the front of the building”.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: “Forcing the UK to fly the flag is not going to get more people to embrace the European Union.”

ALL MIGRANTS TO GET A BRITISH PENSION

Employment Minister Chris Grayling

Monday May 7,2012

By Martyn Brown

BRITAIN faces paying pensions to all migrants under an EU plot to seize control of the benefits system.

It would allow people who have never worked in this country to claim welfare and retirement cash.

But critics last night warned Brussels to expect a battle against any such attempt to “bypass our rights”.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling said: “The Government takes the very firm view there should be no opening up of our welfare system to people coming from abroad who do not intend to work and contribute to British society.

“Our arrangements are for Britain to decide, not Brussels. I’m not happy with the way that the EU is behaving.

“Europe should not be negotiating social security deals on our behalf. That’s why we’re going through the courts to stop them.”

The “worrying” move emerged as Eurocrats prepare to sign a deal with Turkey, which wants to join the EU, and which could give its 75 million ­citizens full access to European nations’ social security payments.

Europe should not be negotiating social security deals on our behalf

Employment Minister Chris Grayling

Ministers fear the controversial move will lead to a string of welfare deals with countries outside the EU, which this country would be powerless to resist.

And it means benefits such as pensions and health care could be handed out to all immigrants, even if they have never contributed taxes to Britain.

Brussels believes the pact will “enhance the special relationship with Turkey” and “permit Turkey to align its policies on social security co-ordination with those of the EU in preparation for future accession”.

The deal would not immediately open the door to large numbers of new Turkish welfare claimants, because Britain already has a treaty with Turkey dating from 1961 which gives some access to social security benefits.

But officials are concerned that once Brussels has grabbed power over benefits eligibility rights could later be extended and given to citizens of other countries to claim here without ­British consent. Tory ministers are concerned this would add millions of pounds to the welfare bill, harm attempts to cut the deficit and encourage benefit tourists to exploit Britain’s generous social security system. This includes the basic state pension of £107.45 a week.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “If they are allowed to get away with these plans then the British government will not be able to stop who lives off our own taxpayers.”

Tory MP Priti Patel said: “All British taxpayers should be deeply concerned about this. It demonstrates the extent of their erosion of British sovereignty.”

The Department for Work and ­Pensions is also angry at what it sees as underhand tactics used by the European Commission to bypass government consent.

The Lisbon Treaty gave Britain the choice to opt in or out of agreements between Brussels and non-EU countries. However, the commission is trying to force through the deal using another part of the treaty that is usually used to govern relations between member states.

DWP sources said Brussels was pursuing an attempt to “bypass our rights”, “seize control” of pensions and benefits rights and encroach further on British sovereignty.

“We should have the right to decide whether to opt in or not to these agreements, but the way the EU is putting them together stops us exercising this right,” said a senior source.

The revelation will fuel support for the Daily Express’s massively popular crusade to get Britain out of the EU.

Last week this newspaper revealed how the “Berlin group” of European nations headed by Germany and France wishes take away much of the UK’s sovereign power. It has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

The Government has already started a legal battle to stop the EU e­xtending its power, taking a case to the European Court to stop similar deals with Switzerland and Norway.

Last night the European Commission denied it was trying to harmonise social security systems, saying the deal would mean migrant workers were not put at a financial disadvantage when moving between states.

“None of this means anyone, wherever they are from, can just pitch up in the UK and claim benefits. For non- EU citizens, working or not, the UK decides who to let in and for how long and whether to recognise them as resident,” said a commission spokesman.

“What this proposal does is simplify administrative arrangements for the governments concerned.”

FRENCH AND GREEKS DEAL DOUBLE BLOW TO AUSTERITY MEASURES

Tuesday May 8 2012 by Padraic Flanagan

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EUROPE'S austerity plans were under severe pressure last night after French and Greek voters delivered a decisive rejection of job cuts and tax rises.

France elected a new president committed to an economic recovery more focused on growth, while Greek politics were left in disarray by an across-the-board thumbs down for savage Brussels-imposed cuts in return for huge bail-outs.

President Francois Hollande was warned by Germany that there was no question of unpicking an EU austerity-based “fiscal treaty” agreed last year.

And the European Commission said that Greece – once it finds a workable coalition government – was expected to stick to the strict austerity commitments it made in return for continued funding from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

A challenge to EU belt-tightening priorities was a central plank of Mr Hollande’s election campaign, and this has raised tensions in Berlin and in Brussels, while the failure in Greece of any party to win more than 20 per cent of the vote reinforced the problems of making austerity stick.

They both look forward to working very closely together in the future

A Downing Street spokesman

The outcome of both elections made markets wobble, with Greek shares down about 6 per cent amid concerns that the odds on Greece leaving the euro were rising.

Another Greek election looks likely, but even if the country does manage to form a government it will feel obliged to reflect voter anger and reject the current scale of austerity measures.

David Cameron spoke to Mr Hollande by phone soon after the new president had won the poll on the back of his attacks on the austerity plans driven by German’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “They both look forward to working very closely together in the future.” But relations with Paris will depend on how far Mr Hollande goes in trying to switch the EU economic emphasis from austerity to sustainable jobs and growth.

Former EU commissioner Lord Mandelson said he expected Mr Hollande and Mrs Merkel to mount a renewed push for greater EU integration to shore up the eurozone.

He said: “I think that both from Mr Hollande and Mrs Merkel you are going to see the top priority being stopping the eurozone from splitting.”

And he added as a warning: “Should Greece leave the eurozone I think it would put a question mark over the risk of market contagion and panic spreading from Greece to other countries.”

EU PLOT TO SCRAP BRITAIN

Britain will run from Brussels if Van Rompuy is replaced by a super EU president

Friday May 4,2012

By Macer Hall EXCLUSIVE

 Have your say(43)

SENIOR Eurocrats are secretly plotting to create a super-powerful EU president to realise their dream of abolishing ­Britain, we can reveal.

A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission.

The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union. 


European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at an EU summit

Tellingly, the UK has been excluded from the confidential discussions within the shady “Berlin Group” of Europhile politicians, spearheaded by German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.

This is a truly ridiculous idea that must never be allowed to happen

Euro-MP Paul Nuttall, of the UK Independence Party

Opponents fear the plan could create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages. 

They are concerned that David Cameron’s coalition Government is doing nothing to prevent the sinister plot. The secret talks were uncovered by Independent Labour peer Lord Stoddart of Swindon.

“This is a plot by people who want to abolish nation states and create a United States of Europe,” he said. 

“The whole thing is barmy. These people are determined to achieve their final objective.

“The only hope for Britain is to leave the EU and become an independent nation.”

The move will give further momentum to the Daily Express’s hugely popular crusade for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and David Cameron

Tory backbench MP Douglas Carswell said: “It doesn’t matter how you arrange the offices of these technocrats, they are useless at arranging our lives for us and they are not elected so they have no legitimacy.

“My worry is that the president will end up having the charisma of Van Rompuy and the economic management skills of Barroso.”

Euro-MP Paul Nuttall, of the UK Independence Party, said: “This is a truly ridiculous idea that must never be allowed to happen. It sounds as if they are trying to go back to the days of the Holy Roman Emperor.”

At present, the two senior EU bureaucrats, Mr Barroso and Mr Van Rompuy, are locked in a bitter power struggle to determine who is the true big cheese or “grand fromage” in Europe. Former Portuguese premier Mr Barroso, who heads the EU’s executive arm and was elected to his post by members of the European Union, is understood to resent the rival fiefdom of Belgian Mr Van Rompuy, who was chosen by the heads of ­government of EU member states to represent them.

Under the plan, a single figure would be elected by Euro-MPs to perform both roles.

Supporters of the move believe that the rival presidencies are undermining the EU’s ability to speak with a single voice. They argue that merging the two jobs will create a powerful European leader who is capable of pursuing the federalist dream of a united Europe which has been severely shaken by the eurozone crisis.

Lord Stoddart confirmed the existence of the plot thanks to a parliamentary written answer in the House of Lords. He asked Foreign Office ministers to reveal what they knew about the merger talks.

In response to his inquiry, Tory Foreign Office minister Lord Howell of Guildford said: “We are aware of one group of EU foreign ministers meeting on an informal basis to discuss a variety of issues related to the future governance of the EU.


Merkel and Sarkozy have built a strong relationship

“While the UK is not part of that group, we understand that one idea under discussion is a merger of the positions of president of the European Council and president of the European Commission.”

Lord Howell added: “A merger of the two presidencies would create a potential conflict of interest, undermine the quality of the EU’s decision-making processes and upset the institutional balance within the EU.” Lord Stoddart said: “These sorts of informal discussions within the EU have a habit of rapidly being transferred into formal proposals.

“Since the Government is not party to these discussions, its reservations are academic.

“Such a merger would represent a massive shift of power into the hands of a single, unelected bureaucrat. The Government should be taking this far more seriously and voicing its objections very strongly.”

He added: “The holder of this new office would be both Europe’s political and administrative leader, giving them far more powers than those given to the US president.

“It really is a great disappointment that we have a Conservative-led Government that is supposed to be Eurosceptic yet ministers just go along with this.”